Rantings from under the Wargames tablehttps://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com
Wargames, Figures, Sculpting and Converting Miniatures
Wed, 20 Mar 2019 19:48:41 +0000 en
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1 http://wordpress.com/https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/7c2ae53fafb25e482aa09ceaaaa94399?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.pngRantings from under the Wargames tablehttps://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com
“Blax the Kleric’s, top ten of 2018”https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/12/29/blax-the-klerics-top-ten-of-2018/
https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/12/29/blax-the-klerics-top-ten-of-2018/#commentsSat, 29 Dec 2018 18:55:34 +0000http://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/?p=1805Continue reading →]]>It’s hard to believe it’s been five years since Dick Garrison first permitted me momentary access to his wonderful hobby blog “Rantings From Under The Wargames Table”, and I extended a similar invitation to him with my own website “Fantorical”. During that time Roger has both sculpted and painted some seriously awesome models, and once again his output during the past twelve months has been no less impressive. Indeed, I think his “Top Ten” for 2018 arguably contains some of his best work yet, and certainly gave me some headaches as I carefully traversed his “Into The Wasteland Project” and marvelled at the man’s annual additions to his ongoing “He-Man” project…

Gore fans amongst you will doubtless approve of this terrific trio being given a place within Roger’s Hall of Fame, as their pointed fangs and blood-stained lips clearly distinguish them as potential pin-ups within the world of the Undead. Lovely deathly-green skin tones, a possibly still beating heart in one hand, and even a bit of bare bosom shows just how very well Roger can paint the walking dead.

I was nowhere near as successful as Roger in his endeavour to paint his “Dungeon Saga” boxed set. However, when I do come to paint my own Dwarf hero, I will be repeatedly visiting his posting of Rordin to see just how it’s done. I am not a fan of the plastic used by “Mantic Games” for this figure, so know precisely how hard it can be to paint, so that makes this excellent tutorial in dwarf armour all the more impressive. Tremendous work.

Roger has painted a fair few damsels over the past twelve months, but none more caught my eye than his Jessica Scarlet. The shimmering red dress is absolutely top-notch stuff, and contrasts splendidly with her visible black stocking and long white gloves. The face is also tremendously well-painted, and completely avoids the oft-seen error of simply slapping some red lips on a figure in the mistaken belief that’ll suffice to represent femininity. A really beautiful miniature.

There’s an awful lot to admire with these two miniatures. Be it the Raquel’s subtle skin tone and fur-skins, or the fantastic blending from green to yellow of Rex’s scaly hide, both models are extremely well painted. In particular, the fact that you can actually see the dinosaur’s claws, as opposed to having them half-submerged in grit and flock as with my own figures, shows the care which Roger took to make sure the models were appropriately based too.

Admittedly, I had never seen these miniatures before Roger painted/posted about them, and as a result, I immediately fell for the scaly-skinned space aliens. Disappointingly, these days “Lancashire Games” seem far more interested in historical ranges, so I haven’t been able to source any for myself. However, I am able to visit Roger’s colourful chaps from time to time and dream…

As Roger is a fellow “Doctor Who” fan I have taken great delight in the past sending him the odd spare set of figures I’ve uncovered in my collection. One such bag was the now Out of Production Temporal Travellers by “Crooked Dice”. I was especially pleased to gift these to Roger as the group contained a smashing likeness of Sarah Jane Smith, as played by the much-missed Elizabeth Sladen. Roger’s subsequent paint-job on the Third/Fourth Doctor’s companion did not disappoint at all, and put my own efforts on the figure sadly to shame…

It is sometimes incredible the difference a simple paint-job can do to a pre-painted plastic miniature. Roger’s stunning transformation of a dark-furred “D&D” big cat into the impressively green companion of He-Man, Cringer, was outstanding. And whilst the figure is still available at a cost, I have yet to pull the trigger so as to replicate Roger’s palette swap for fear of my own skills falling far short of his brush-work. Just look at those strips and the face – spectacular stuff.

Personally I love a bit of rust on my models when I can get away with it, especially when it means I can apply my “Mig Productions” Extreme Rust Wash. Roger however, used no such trickery upon this pair of awesome robots and instead relied upon his skill with a paint-brush to ‘weather up’ these automatons amazingly. They really are stunningly painted, and look awesome when photographed amidst some of Roger’s excellent-looking “Into The Wasteland Project” terrain.

I am a sucker for Merman. I even own a “Funko Pop!” figure of Skeletor’s ineffective minion. So when I saw Roger was sculpting one from essentially scratch, I was all eyes. The final result did not disappoint in any way shape or form, and was in many ways Rogers “Master(piece) Of The Universe”. Mind-bogglingly good green-stuff work and an excellent paint-job make Merman a real eye-catcher, and debatably any other year, this would have easily been my favourite model.

One of Roger’s first postings of 2018, my favourite model of the year has to be Roger’s wonderful reimagining of “Doctor Who” for his “Into The Wasteland Project”. Not only is the figure passionately pigmented, but I absolutely adored Edmond Atkinson’s fictional background and the gas-mask wearing explorer’s kit-bashed time-travelling machine. Marvellous stuff, absolutely marvellous.

As ever, there are many other models which Roger has painted to perfection which still haven’t made this list. So before I retire once again to my own blog, I would like to highlight the entirety of Roger’s stunning-looking “Into The Wasteland Project”, his masterful work on the contents of the “Dungeon Saga” Boxed Set, and wish you all a Happy New Year…

Simon.

(As usual I’ll just stick my “oar in” at the end to say a massive thank you to Simon, for not just writing one but TWO! Top Tens this year, and to thank you lot out there in the “cyberverse” for reading this high prose’, and my usual nonsense, you really do keep me honest, productive, and make this such a joy to do. All the very best too you all for the new year.

Oh and be sure to check out my “Top Ten” of Simons output for the year at…

]]>https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/12/29/blax-the-klerics-top-ten-of-2018/feed/7rantingsfromunder“Blax the Kleric’s, top ten of 2017”https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/12/23/blax-the-klerics-top-ten-of-2017/
https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/12/23/blax-the-klerics-top-ten-of-2017/#commentsSun, 23 Dec 2018 19:46:19 +0000http://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/?p=1799Continue reading →]]>Any long-suffering fans of “Rantings From Under The Wargames Table” who were expecting to take away some sort of festive cheer from this posting will sadly be disheartened to discover that once again I have momentarily deposed Dick Garrison so as to post my own Top Ten favourite miniatures which he has painted during 2017. On the one hand this has proved somewhat easier than usual as Roger wasn’t as proficient in his production as he has been in past years, but on the other much more difficult as the man has certainly painted some extraordinarily nice models during this time too. Indeed, during this period Roger has both seemingly completed his “Very British Civil War” collection by “Irregular Miniatures” and, yet again, provided an in-depth look at his awesome sculpting abilities with two more welcome additions to his ongoing “He-Man” project…

I’m guessing quite a few wargamers at least own a sculpt of Lara Croft, so it was hard not to see why, Roger’s take on the definitive “Tomb Raider” proved so popular on his blog. However, what was particularly impressive with this figure was his sheer perseverance to ‘keep going’ when the miniature’s fragilely-positioned arms “kept snapping off” whilst he was painting her.

I’ve always had a soft spot for Stormboyz, ever since I first discovered “Games Workshop” and the world of “Warhammer 40K”, so was always going to try and squeeze in some of these old OOP metal sculpts into any Top Ten if I could. Fortunately, not only did Roger paint up quite a few of these greenskin shock troops that it would have been impossible to ignore them, but he gave them just the sort of scruffy, rusty palette one would expect from the Germanic-flavoured close combat assault infantry.

One of the first models painted by Roger as part of his “Into The Wasteland Project”, I absolutely loved both this figure’s splendid-looking paint-job and the character’s fictional background story. There’s a real air of Benito Mussolini to this miniature, in my mind at least, with his marvellous array of medals and imposing gesture really marking him out as a determined dictator of men.

An arguably rather unimpressive model when unpainted, this giant alien insect was transformed into vibrant life by Roger’s brushwork, and once again had me scouring the website of the miniature’s manufacturer looking for one to purchase myself. The red and brown palette really works by drawing the eye along the entire length of its carapace to its stinger, and is a great example of just how sellable a figure can become when it is properly pigmented.

If there is one thing Roger is very good at, apart from being the ‘Sorcerer Supreme’ when it comes to green-stuff, it is his ability to paint camouflage or stripes on his miniatures, and this pair of Sci-Fi Troopers are a marvellous demonstration of his skill. Jaw-droppingly clean-lined and well-pigmented, these two figures look excellent, with their colourful façade contrasting nicely alongside their gas-mask heads.

I must confess to originally thinking when I first saw these blue-skinned extra-terrestrial that I’d never heard of the wonderful 15mm alien figures before Roger posted them up on his blog, and wowed me with their incredibly vivid colour scheme. However, these are actually the second batch of such figures over the past few years which the fiend has fantastically pigmented, so I immediately felt morally obliged to include them in my Top Ten; especially as the contrast between their skin colour and red bases is so very eye-catching.

Another sequel to a range Roger hasn’t previously touched since January 2015 (the Akarr being the first), this formidable-looking cavalry model actually made me contact the manufacturer to establish whether I could still purchase some for myself. This model is tremendously well-detailed, and Roger’s blended brushwork is absolutely stunning, particularly around the giant bird’s head and beak.

Being a “Metal Mickey” fan I never really paid much attention to either “Get Fresh” or “Gilbert’s Fridge” as a child, so found Roger’s paint-work and detailed description concerning this sculpt of the much-loved alien puppet tremendously endearing. Not only is the model’s palette absolutely spot on, but once again Roger turned to a tin of green stuff in order to ensure his beloved figure had “his trade mark spikey Mohawk.”

Rather embarrassingly my collection of unpainted “Wizkids” miniatures is rather extensive, and resultantly I will probably never manage to re-paint my own copy of Wolfsbane any time soon as I feel it’s one of the “Heroclix” range’s less impressive sculpts. Roger though has taken this underwhelming figure and with a bit of genuine green stuff magic, turned it into an absolutely awesome “villain from the early days of Bananaman back when he was a staple of the Nutty comic.”

Essentially sculpted by Roger from scratch, or at least from a dollie, this corking creation of Skeletor’s leading henchman is absolutely mind-blowing in both pose and paint-job, and is easily demonstrative of Mister Webb’s jaw-droppingly good skills when given the time (and patience) to do so. Like many, I so wish Roger had been able to turn this figure into part of a range for “Wargames Supply Dump Miniatures” as I’m convinced it would have been a market-winner!

Needless to say, there are a fair few other models which disappointingly just failed to make this list. 2017 really did see Roger painting across a myriad of genres (and scales), with the likes of his wonderfully grubby “VBCW” Riflemen, extraordinarily extra-terrestrial “Silent Death” spaceships and wickedly wild “Wargames Foundry” Bondage Betty all getting close to the mark too…

Simon.

(Well that just leaves me to finish off with my usual huge thank you to Simon for doing this again, and to hope you enjoyed it, as he’ll be doing it all over again in a few days time with his choices from my 2018 output, while I’ll be let loose on “Fantorical” with my choices from his. So till New Years eve, Id like to wish you all the very best of Christmas’s from the both of us! Cheers Roger)

]]>https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/12/23/blax-the-klerics-top-ten-of-2017/feed/15rantingsfromunder“Jingle’ Belle”https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/12/19/jingle-belle/
https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/12/19/jingle-belle/#commentsWed, 19 Dec 2018 13:30:02 +0000http://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/?p=1788Continue reading →]]>Ok so Christmas is coming, and the goose is getting fat (Though probably not as fat as I’ll be by Boxing day!!), but I thought this year I’d just try and fit in one more figure before I’m done for 2018. Now this isn’t the figure that I had originally planned to get done (they will have to wait till the start of the New Year now), but it came to me at work that a Christmas themed posting might be a nice idea, and I knew exactly what I had in mind, if I had a suitable figure suitable to form a bit of “conversion fodder”. So after rushing home and sorting through my drawers (oo’er misses!) a suitable candidate was found, and here she is… yet another of my “Copplestone Castings” bikini clad “babes”, these are great foundation figures for a bit of greenstuff work, a bit like 28mm metal versions of those paper dollies little girls used to have in my youth that you could hang different outfits onto! Anyway less chatter more work!

First job was to clean up the casting, file away her shoes a bit and sand away the back of her head on a forty five degree angle. She was then glued to a “tuppence” and once dry I could start adding her “festive regalia”. Now it simply wouldn’t be Christmas without “stockings” so that’s where I started, these were done by running small, thin sausages of putty around the middle of her thighs, then dragging and smoothing these down her legs towards her knees, leaving it slightly thicker at the top (I could have just painted these on, but you know OCD!), on the outer sides of the top I pushed up the putty into a gentle point, as this is where her suspenders will attach. Next I added her ankle boots (slightly more sensible for walking in snow, than her shoes, hey a little realism doesn’t hurt!) I left the original heels uncovered, because it was easier and there’s no point sculpting what’s already been done. And lastly tonight I added her hat, this was just a cone of putty stuck on the sanded flat back of her head pushed into shape and then another ring of putty run around the join and the fur effect pushed into it with a spike and knife point.

Day two, and this has become a lesson in patience as I really want to start on what will be her rather short dress, but as her suspenders need to run up under this these needed to be added first, so a really thin sausage of putty was polled out (thinner than a dressmakers pin), and then two lengths about six millimetres long were cut off of this and these were added running up from her stocking tops to her waist, after prodding and tapping in some random detail that hopefully will look like lace once painted, the top section (above her panty sides) was trimmed away. I also added the furry tops to her boots, these were just two more sausages of putty run around the boot tops and the fur was tapped in as with her hat, and finally I added the pompom at the tip of her hat, this was just a small ball of putty, and again the fur was tapped in with a spike and knife tip.

Dress day today, so I began here by adding a small sausage of putty across her back just above the top of her panties, this would act as a support once the top “dress” layer went on as I wanted it to flare out at the back, and this came next another sausage was flattened out into an oval and attached from the top of her back down to the bottom edge of the “support sausage” and then smoothed out around her arms and out to the front where the two edges were blended into each other. I then blended away the join between the outer dress and inner support underneath the rear, and once I was happy with all this I then took my pointed probe and pushed in the folds in the material, these were then widened and smoothed with my pointed colour shaper making sure that the high points of the folds were curved upwards and the lower points curved downwards. As she is supposed to be a “sexy” lady I made sure plenty of suspender and panties was left on show. Talking of which I next took a small ball of putty and applying it to the rear area of exposed panty (this is fast becoming a very rude posting!!) I shaped it into the classic inverted triangle and then tapped in some flouncy lace effect. Lastly today I added more of the fur effect around her cleavage and a tiny bit where it could be seen under her hair at her shoulders. Not a bad night’s work if I’m honest.

A couple of relatively easy jobs to finish her off today, just had to run a long thin sausage of putty around the bottom of her dress and two small ones around her wrists (to form the cuffs on her gloves, well I don’t want her catching cold now do I!), and then the fur effect was tapped into these areas in the usual method and she was complete ready for basing and painting over the next couple of days. This does however seem to bring up an opportune moment to impart a little tip onto you, when you have to sculpt two areas that you want to look like they match, e.g. boots, stocking tops, arms, legs… basically anything you want the same size the easiest way I have found to do this is to roll your putty out into a long sausage, estimate about how much you think you will need to make one item (one leg, arm etc,,) and cut that amount off. Then lay that piece next to the rest of the sausage and use it as a guide where to cut the next piece, “hey presto” two pieces containing the same amount of putty, and thus it should be easier to make your finished items the same relative size. I’m too good to you lot really I am!

Basing and spraying with matt black came the next day (but you don’t want to see a picture of that now do you!), Then the day after I could start to add a little colour into her life, as I want her stockings to be black I thought I’d begin by undercoating them in mid grey, then once this was good and dry I repainted them in a thinned down wash of matt black. Next her boots, hat, dress and gloves were all undercoated in ruby red before being highlighted in bright red. After this, next on the agenda was her flesh, so a base of European flesh was applied first and the after her eyes were painted in with some white, and then her pupils and eye liner (yes this is new, but I thought I’d try it to see if it made her eyes look bigger!), were added in black. I highlighted her flesh with a mix of European flesh and pale flesh. Her fur trimmings (who doesn’t like a bird with all the trimmings at Christmas?) and her underwear was all undercoated in coffee, before being dry-brushed with cream, oh and I finally remembered that I hadn’t dry-brushed her gun with chainmail back at the start, so I did this too. Hair, I thought that would be a good idea! So out came the citrus orange, and lemon yellow and these formed the undercoat and highlight on my “blonde bombshell”. Lastly (well apart from a bit of touching up here and there), I thought I’d add some “candy” stripes to the grip on her gun so these were done in coffee and cream, and shamrock and lime, the heels on her boots I’d left black so a tiny dark grey highlight was added here and she was finished.

Next day she was given a coat of light tone Quickshade and the day after I set about her base. This was begun by painting the whole thing in coffee, then giving it a heavy dry-brushing with some cream and then again with some white. Once all this was good and dry I painted the whole surface again this time with some PVA wood glue before sprinkling some artificial snow flakes (that I bought from a show many years ago, back when I was doing my own range of “Santa Claus Wars” figures), these were then “blobbed” (painted is too strong a word for what I did!) with some more watered down PVA and left to dry, this gives a nice “icy” finish, talking of finishes, a spray coat of matt varnish was the finishing touch to her , and here she is in all her chilly glory! I dug out some of my snow covered trees as a backdrop to her final pictures.

I’ll leave you with a seasonal joke…. Santa goes to the doctor complaining of a sore bottom. “Ok, drop your trousers and let’s have a look!!” says the doctor. Santa quickly complies and bending over the doctor takes a look. “Ah I see the problem” He says “You appear to have a mince pie lodged up there”. “Oh” says Santa “Well it’s very painful! Is there something you can do?”. “Well” says the doc “I do have some cream for that!”

Merry Christmas, Cheers Roger.

]]>https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/12/19/jingle-belle/feed/22rantingsfromunder“A Scrunty Swansong” (Mo’vember)https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/11/30/a-scrunty-swansong-movember/
https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/11/30/a-scrunty-swansong-movember/#commentsFri, 30 Nov 2018 17:39:59 +0000http://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/?p=1779Continue reading →]]>Right well as you may (or may not) know I have been spending the month of November finishing off my remaining Scrunt’s by the inimitable Bob Olley, the light infantry to be exact and I am happy report that the fourteen figures are now finished (yes just fourteen figures batch painted in a month is a bit the meager side but other things have got in the way of progress on these chaps, but more on that at the end of this post). As you will recall when last I left you they looked like this….

But as I said progress has been made, and even though there wasn’t that much left to do on them it’s taken me this long to do it! Anyway this is how it was done. Last time I finished with adding the undercoats to their facial hair in either chocolate brown, dark sand, light sand, chestnut brown, or dark grey, and I said I would last time I then highlighted these in chestnut brown, light sand, lemon yellow, orange or butternut or mid grey respectively. Next I set to work on the “shades” seven of them are sporting, re-touching up the black before adding highlights of dark grey. Now I wanted to be able to spilt these chaps into two clearly defined (and reasonably equally armed) units, and the easiest way I could think of doing this was to do one lot grey “Ushanka” style headgear and the others brown. So that’s what I did next undercoats seven in dark grey and the other seven (why do dwarves always seem to come in sevens?) in chocolate brown. These were then dry-brushed in mid grey or a mix of chocolate brown and cream. That really just left a few details to add to their weapons and belt buckles in copper and the pipes and tanks on the flame thrower in dark red highlighted with bright red, and they were ready for a coat of “Quickshade” strong tone.

After this was dry they had their bases were painted scenic brown (a change to my usual method of chocolate brown but they have to match the rest of their kin done before I got my chocolate addiction!) Then they were dry-brushed with khaki and coffee, then areas were picked out in scenic green that were then flocked with summer mix hairy grass, quite frankly unless you really look closely at them you can’t tell the difference between these and my newer method. Finally they had a coat of matt varnishy sprayed all over them to de-gloss em’ a bit. Well that brings my Mo’vember postings to a close (and just in time too!)

Now as I mentioned earlier in this post I have had one or two things vying for my oh so precious time, chief amongst these (well that you lot would be interested in anyway) was painting up a shield that Dennis (my cosplaying in-law) had made to further enhance his “Game Of Thrones” winter collection (not available in stores, but you never know, give him time!), anyway this was constructed from foam garage flooring tiles and then presented to me for painting, which I did with various emulsion “match-pots”, and Acrylic craft paints, the dire-wolf head was printed out on two sheets of A4 and once glued in place I painted over the whole thing again (as the printed version looked a bit crap TBH). This will now join the Sword I re-painted, the scabbard I made from scratch, and the helmet and armoured vambraces that I have painted to match the other pieces of his armour (I know I haven’t mentioned some of these bits before, but I’m just so darn modest!). Hopefully this will be the last of these costume bits (as frankly there isn’t much left of him to hang any more on!).

Long term readers will probably be aware that I usually take all of December off figure painting as I get dragged into preparations for “that” day, but this year I do hope to get one last lot of figures done before the year ends, so till then…

Cheers Roger.

]]>https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/11/30/a-scrunty-swansong-movember/feed/20rantingsfromunder“W.I.P(ing) up a Scrunty Storm” (Mo’vember)https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/11/11/w-i-ping-up-a-scrunty-storm-movember/
https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/11/11/w-i-ping-up-a-scrunty-storm-movember/#commentsSun, 11 Nov 2018 19:23:03 +0000http://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/?p=1775Continue reading →]]>Right I’ll start with a quick re-cap of what’s going on over here at “Webb Towers”, I am basically deep in the throes of batch painting up the rest of my Scrunt’s (by Bob Olley) as my submission for this years “Mo’vember” challenge, though I am not exactly sticking to the rules, I’m not going to go into this, (if you are interested read my last post). Anyway when last you saw the short chaps they looked like this…..

Well I have made some progress on them since then, you’ll see how much later in this post. But before I get into all that I’d just like to point you all in the direction of “Azazel’s Bitz Box” where he has now posted up all the participants work in his Unit-ed challenge (including my humble efforts), there is some simply stunning work on show there, and as soon as you have finished reading this (and not before!!!) I encourage you to go over there and be amazed!

Anyway back to my figures, and painting re-commenced as follows. European flesh was used to undercoat all the exposed “fleshy” areas basically their hands and the bits of their faces not obscured by bristles! Then after I added the eyes on the ones where you could see them (seven of the fourteen, are wearing glasses, I hate doing eyes so thanks Bob!) in white and black these a5reas were highlighted with more European flesh lightened with a bit of pale flesh. I turned my attention to the padding they all have across the top rear of their boiler suits next, again keeping with the colours I have used on my other “Scrunt’s” I went for royal blue that was highlighted with some bright blue. Finally this week I have made a start on the all-important facial hair they are all sporting, by undercoating these areas with either chocolate brown, dark sand, light sand, chestnut brown, or dark grey, these will of course be highlighted with lighter versions of themselves next, but more on that next time.

So only a short post this time, but at least I think I’m over the brow of the hill now, they might even be finished in the next post but till then… cheers Roger.

]]>https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/11/11/w-i-ping-up-a-scrunty-storm-movember/feed/13rantingsfromunder“W.I.P(ing) Out Some Scrunt’s”. (Mo’vember)https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/11/06/w-i-ping-out-some-scrunts-movember/
https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/11/06/w-i-ping-out-some-scrunts-movember/#commentsTue, 06 Nov 2018 18:46:17 +0000http://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/?p=1770Continue reading →]]>There are two types of figures in my house, those that get painted almost immediately and the ones that hang about unpainted for years and it’s from this second (much larger group, if I’m honest) group that this month’s figures come Yes I said “month” not “week” as I will explain in a minute. Anyway I have dug out all my remaining Scrunt’s by Bob Olley (fourteen light infantry to be exact) for completion this month, and why have you done that? I hear you ask (or perhaps it’s just the voices in my head).

Well first off it’s “Mo’vember”, what? I hear you ask again (get them off me Sam!*), well basically all participants (and it looks like it’s just me this year, just call me “Billy no mates!!”) agree to paint up at least one figure with facial hair of some description each week for the month of November, hence the Scrunt’s, as they cover this area of the rules admirably, however I have decided that rather than painting up three or four complete figures a week (and probably failing miserably) I would batch paint the lot and just post “work in progress” posts each week or so as I go along, not really sticking to the “Mo’vember” rules of “one fig per week”, but instead “clinging” to the spirit of the event by (hopefully) completing four weeks’ worth of “beardies” by the end of the month.

This approach has one more benefit, in as much as it also means I can cross off two boxes (one on each list) from my “Random Painting Generator” lists “Lancelot and Galahad” (don’t ask) so….

Box 15 – (Scrunt’s three figures of choice)

So once the figures were cleaned up and any flash/mould lines were removed, and I’d glued the two separate weapons onto the figure in the centre of the photo (left), the figures were as usual all based up on the ubiquitous “two pence piece” with a couple of thin squares of card glued between the coin and the figures bases to lift them up to my usual preferred base thickness (yes I am THAT anal!). Then taking my trusty tub of “Tetrion” all-purpose filler I built up the areas around the feet of the figures and once this was dry it was out to the garage for a spray coat of matt black car spray. This was then “touched up” with a brush and my pot of matt black acrylic. As I hope to add these chaps to my “Scrunt” forces I went with a colour scheme that is similar to the rest of the figures (see link at the bottom of the post to see these), so after I’d given their weapons a dry-brushing of chainmail I painted their overalls with some blue grey, then once dry (and by the time I’d got to the fourteenth the first was dry, a bit like painting the forth bridge!) I mixed some more of the blue grey with some white and highlighted them with this. Next up were their boots and belts so these areas were painted with come chocolate brown and were then I highlight here with some leather brown, and as you can see from the photo’s that is where I’m up to so far, still a way to go but I’m reasonably happy with how far I’ve got.

This is a Derek Acorah reference for anyone who’s never seen “Most Haunted”

]]>https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/11/06/w-i-ping-out-some-scrunts-movember/feed/12rantingsfromunder“The End, & What a Saga it Turned Out to be!” (Zom’tober & Unit’ed Challenge)https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/10/27/the-end-what-a-saga-it-turned-out-to-be-zomtober-united-challenge/
https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/10/27/the-end-what-a-saga-it-turned-out-to-be-zomtober-united-challenge/#commentsSat, 27 Oct 2018 14:10:57 +0000http://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/?p=1763Continue reading →]]>Well as the title says, I have now completed all the figures (and scenery) from the “Mantic Games” board game “Dungeon Saga”, and I have to admit this nearly broke me! Though I have only been at these for the last two months it seems like I been painting them forever! Anyway this does mean I have completed Azazels “Un’ited” challenge by finishing all the figure in a unit or game (go me!) and have “sort of” finished my last submission for “Zom’tober”, though I didn’t hit the one zombie a week target, I did do nine over the month, so I’m going to take that as a win too (please don’t point out my deficiencies here, as I might just break down in tears if you do!). Anyway all I had left to do this last week (or so, sorry) was complete the three “zombie trolls” included in the game, and I was sadly lulled into a false sense of security by Keith of “Dead Dicks Tavern” fame*, as he had painted these figures up a few weeks ago and had appeared to have got beautiful results in under a week, so though I was a little daunted by the big trolls, I thought They shouldn’t be a problem to get done in a week (wrong!). Work is still conspiring to suck up all my time when I’m not sleeping, I apologize that I keep bleating on about this, I know nearly all of you have jobs too, but this is really starting to get me down (they nave obviously never heard the term “work life balance!”, and it looks like it will be like this till Christmas (and before anyone makes any jokes, no I do not work at the “North Pole” with a jolly fat man in red!). Still enough moaning, and on with the figures, “Hoggar” the “Zombie Troll Shaman” is a character figure and therefore had a character card detailing his special abilities, and I have printed the illustrated image of him next to the finished figures for comparison. All the figures were begun in my usual manner, with a spray coat of matt black.

Hoggar, I decided to begin the Shaman by tackling his flesh first, so trying to match the colour of the “official” picture I mixed some khaki and coffee on the figure by slapping both colours about here and then blending them into each other, then once dry I gave this a further dry-brushing with more coffee. Next I turned to the various wounds about his person painting them dark red, then adding some details here with continental flesh mixed with some Polish crimson, and the odd bit of exposed bone with cream. Then taking my chocolate brown I added all the leather and wooden parts highlighting them in either leather brown or butternut respectively. Eyes and mouth (what there is of it) came next, black with white pupils for the eyes, and cream teeth on dark red gums taking care of these. His clothes I did in a mix of olive green and deep bronze green, with more olive green highlights (this is actually closer to the colour of the illustration than the photo appears). The rings on his harness and the edges of the covering at the top of his back I did with some chainmail, dry-brushed with rust, and the cover itself I did in deep bronze green with more of the same mixed with more olive green. The various skulls and the bone atop his staff was then painted coffee with cream highlights. He has some feathers hooked under the strapping on his arm, and these were added in navy blue with royal blue highlights. That just left me to add the various bits of “gore” around his wounds and hands in bright red (not on the original illustration, but hey what can I say I’m a sick puppy!).

Zombie trolls, the other two “trolls” are minor “bit part players” and so don’t have official colour schemes so I had free reign as to what colours I used, so beginning with their flesh once again I painted splodges of stone green, olive pale flesh, dark grey, and coffee (though not all of the colours went on both figures, but all did go on one or the other, if that makes sense). These were then blended into each other with the darker one then being dry-brushed with a coffee and stone green, and the lighter one with pale flesh. There wounds were added next as I did with Hoggar, as were their eyes and mouths. Their loincloths were then added in chocolate brown, with leather highlights, and where they were folded back at the waists I added the other side of the leather in khaki with coffee highlights. They too had the skulls hanging from their belts added in coffee and cream before they too were “gored up” with some bright red.

All three figures then had their flagstone bases dry-brushed in successive ever lighter layers of dark grey, light grey and white and then I added the various scattered bones these bigger bases feature in black dry-brushed with coffee and then cream. They were then given a coat of strong tone “Quickshade” and once that was dry I followed this up with a coat of Humbrol matt varnish. I’ll finish off with the obligatory photo of all the Dungeon Saga miniatures, including our somewhat outnumbered heroes.

Next week see’s the start of November, or Mo’vember as we like to call it, where each week you have to complete at least one figure featuring facial hair of some description. Now I have got some figures put aside in preparation for this though given the somewhat irregularity to my postings at the moment, getting out a post every weekend seems a little ambitious, however I will be painting “Beardies” for the next month or so as I would like them finished before the end of the year, so we’ll see how I get on (or not) then.

So till next time, cheers Roger.

http://angrypiper.com/?p=2724

]]>https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/10/27/the-end-what-a-saga-it-turned-out-to-be-zomtober-united-challenge/feed/19rantingsfromunder“Four Zombies, well that’s what they are!” (Zom’tober & Unit’ed Challenge)https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/10/14/four-zombies-well-thats-what-they-are-zomtober-united-challenge/
https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/10/14/four-zombies-well-thats-what-they-are-zomtober-united-challenge/#commentsSun, 14 Oct 2018 16:27:30 +0000http://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/?p=1756Continue reading →]]>OK just a quick post this week (by my standards anyway), as time is still very much against me, and I’m still playing catch up. Four figures that fit in well with this months themed challenges, zombies for “Zomtober” and Dungeon Saga mini’s for the “Unit-ed” challenge. So without further ado I give you….four zombies.

As they are all the same basic thing I’m going to cover the painting of them to together, so working up from my usual black undercoat, I took some dark grey, stone green, flesh tone 7 (dark flesh), pale flesh, leather brown and coffee and blobbed them out onto a “Pringles” lid. Then in my usual way of painting zombies various mixes of the above colours were applied “willy, nilly” across all the exposed flesh areas of all four figures then blended into each other giving various sickly flesh tones from green to grey. The eyes and mouths were added next using black and white, and then the exposed wounds dotted about their persons were painted in dark red with cream used on any bits of bone that were poking out. Then turning to the less well dressed “zom’s” I layered coffee and cream on their up raised bones (this was not as kinky as it sounds!! You lot and your filthy minds, I despair I do honestly!). Clothes came after this, chocolate brown with the same mixed with a little khaki taking care of the trousers on one and the loincloth on another, royal blue with the same mixed with coffee on the next ones trousers. Plum with more of the same mixed with more coffee on the other loincloth. The shirts were added next, coffee and cream for one and khaki with a mix of khaki and coffee on the other (that’s a lot of coffee! I won’t be able to sleep tonight!!). I spent a little while trying to decide whether they had hair or not, in the end I went with hair, two with black highlighted with dark grey, and two with chocolate brown with chestnut highlights. These colours albeit with leather replacing chestnut were also used on the belts, pouches in knife sheaths (why do zombies have knives I wonder?), a little copper used here on the metallic bits of the handles. Lastly I set about them with the bright red next again over the wounds and also around their mouths and hands, and they were done.

Next of course I painted up their bases with dry-brushes of ever lighter layers of dark grey, light grey and white over each other, and then as always they were given a coat of “Quickshade” strong tone. Finally the then dry figures were given a coat of matt varnish with a “rattle can” of Humbrol. Oh and sorry for the awful pictures again, it just seems like every time I’m actually in to take photo’s it’s to dark to get decent results!

Getting there, slowly….

Till next time, cheers Roger.

]]>https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/10/14/four-zombies-well-thats-what-they-are-zomtober-united-challenge/feed/21rantingsfromunder“It’s for Stabbing Round Corners!” (Zom’tober & Unit’ed Challenge)https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/10/07/its-for-stabbing-round-corners-zomtober-united-challenge/
https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/10/07/its-for-stabbing-round-corners-zomtober-united-challenge/#commentsSun, 07 Oct 2018 20:02:09 +0000http://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/?p=1748Continue reading →]]>Well as the say “New month same sh…sorry figures”, as though Saga’tember has now come to an end by some happy coincidence (no I planned this, honest!), all the figures I have left to paint from the board game “Dungeon Saga” by Mantic games (bar the two skelly’s, in this week’s group) are now Zombie’s! So perfect Zom’tober fodder, and as “Brummie” has been kind enough to let me take part again this year, along with also entering Azazel’s Unit’ed challenge where you have to complete a previously started unit or box-game (no really this counts!), I should have all the motivation (if not the time) I need to get these blooming things finished before the end of the month.

Anyway this is the first posting for both challenges, and I’m late again, good start!! I can see I’ll be playing catch up all month (oh well), the figures were in fact finished yesterday (Sunday) but sadly not before it was too dark to take any decent photographs same thing happened today, by the time I got home it was to dark again, so ended up taking them in the garage under the strip light, that’s why we’re here today and the pictures are so blooming awful!! (Sorry). None of these figures are “characters” from the game, so I had free reign to paint them as I wished, so let’s get on and see how I did that (wow that sounded very “Blue Peter” didn’t it).

Armored Zombies: These are actually really nice figures if you ignore the slightly “wonky” swords they are holding (hence the title of this week’s post). All the figures were first given a spray coat of matt black, then had any “metal bits” swords, shield rims, armour etc.. dry-brushed with chainmail, and then (as they are the resurrected dead) again with rust. I then picked out the leather bits on the “Zom’s” with chocolate brown, and highlight these areas with leather brown. Then one figure had his tabard, shield and helmet plume painted, half in aquamarine, highlighted with the same mixed with some turquoise, and half with coffee highlighted with cream, the other one had the same areas painted in plum highlighted with the same mixed with some lilac, to this one I then added chevron’s in coffee and cream along with his helmets plume. The flesh on the first figure was added next in dark grey, pale flesh and stone green, that were all added at the same time and mixed in the figure itself to create the undead flesh. The same was repeated on the other figure this time using deep turquoise, pale flesh and stone green. The eyes and mouths were added next in black and white, and some bright red was painted around the mouths and down the front of their tabards, to add a little gore! I added some “bling” to their armour here and there with copper highlighted with shinning gold, and a jewel was added to each sword hilt in metallic blue or metallic red.

Skeleton’s: In many ways I was tempted to just cut and paste how I painted up the skeleton archers from a couple of weeks ago, but that would be cheating (wouldn’t it?), anyway these figures were started as the zombies above, but when I got up to the chocolate brown stage, I painted this over the back of the shields (highlighted with butternut) and also blobbed it on “willy’nilly” over the skeletal bodies before I dry-brushed them with coffee then cream. I then re-painted the boots, belts and gloves in black before highlighting them with dark grey. This was also used as the undercoat for the fur atop their boots, that was then dry-brushed with some mid grey and again with some white. Both shield fronts were painted with more coffee, highlighted with cream, then one had a “quarter” design added in dark red highlighted with pink burgundy, and the other with three “sweeping” segments in royal blue highlighted with light blue. Khaki, highlighted with more of the same mixed with some coffee was used on the cape of one chap and the trousers of the other, with scenic brown highlighted with earth brown and royal blue mixed with light blue, highlighted with just light blue being used on the other pair of trousers and cape respectively. A couple of bits of bronze highlighted with copper here and there and these too were completed ready for finishing off.

And that’s what came next, the flagstone bases on the figures were dry-brushed in successive ever lighter layers of dark grey, light grey and white as always and then given a coat of “Quickshade” strong tone. Once this was dry they were given a spray coat of matt varnish to matt them down.

]]>https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/10/07/its-for-stabbing-round-corners-zomtober-united-challenge/feed/16rantingsfromunder“A Small Bone to Pick With You!” (Saga’tember)https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/10/02/a-small-bone-to-pick-with-you-sagatember/
https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/10/02/a-small-bone-to-pick-with-you-sagatember/#commentsTue, 02 Oct 2018 14:21:54 +0000http://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/?p=1742Continue reading →]]>Well as most of you are probably aware, Saga’tember has been and gone and I have failed miserably to complete anywhere near the amount of figures I’d hoped to, my co-conspirator Keith, of “Dead Dick Tavern fame (see link at the end of this post) rubbing salt into the wound by completing twenty three of the twenty six miniatures the game contains!! Anyway as I have stated before I have to finish all the miniatures for this game before Christmas, so as all the miniatures after these three are all Zombies (or have Zombies in there mix), I will be using them as my Zomtober entries, along with also taking part in Azazels “Unit-ed Challenge” (again see link at the end of this post), to complete a unit that is unfinished (these qualify I’ve checked). Now after my performance last month is it wise to take on not one but two challenges, probably not, but what the hell, I’m getting used to failure now!

Anyway, this last week (or so) I have been working on the three undead Dwarves that the game contains, so I give you “Grund” and a couple of “Skeletal Stunties”….

“Grund” is yet another of the “Characters” from the game and as such I once again tried to follow the “official” colour scheme as set out on the “character card” (the picture from which is shown next to the painted figure, as always). All three were sprayed matt black, and then dry-brushed with chainmail over any “metal” bits, then in the same way as last time I touched up all the “boney bits” where the chainmail etc, had encroached and then added some patches of chocolate brown here and there before dry-brushing them with successive coats of coffee and cream. I added his cloak next, dark red was used as the undercoat here with ruby red used for the highlights. Then the remnants of his robe were added with deep turquoise with green (a Tamiya colour) highlights. More chocolate brown was used on the shaft of his big hammer (oo’er misses!) and a dry brushing of butternut went over this, and on his boots, belt and gloves where it was also applied leather brown was used as the highlight. His crown and belt buckle came next bronze with copper highlights here, with the jewels added in metallic red and metallic green (I also added a couple of the green ones to the head of his hammer too, and the red to the glowing centres of his eyes). The wrapping in his hammer shaft was added in khaki and coffee, and lastly his beard was done in dark grey with mid-grey and cream dry-brushed over it.

The two Dwarf skeletons (his retainers?), were begun in exactly the same way as Grund (no shock there!). Then one had his cloak painted royal blue, with mid blue highlights and the other dark grey with mid grey. Chocolate brown was used on the wood and leather bits, butternut or leather brown forming the highlights on these, details on the axe blades and the wings on their helmets were picked out using bronze and copper, as I did with Grund. I then turned to the fronts of their shields, dark red with pink burgundy highlights on the one and mid blue with light blue in the others, a couple of basic symbols added in black and then filled in with cream and they would do. That just left their beards to add, chestnut with an orange highlight and dark sand with a light sand highlight on the other, and they were finished.

The figures then had their bases dry-brushed in successive ever lighter layers of dark grey, light grey and white over the flagstones and they were then given a coat of “Quickshade” strong tone. Once dry they were given a spray coat of matt varnish to dull then down (actually i8 think I went a bit heavy with the varnish as they are “very” matt and look almost dusty, luckily as they are supposedly the “dead arisen” I think I can get away with this, would have been rather pee’d off if they were more “animated and healthy figures though!!.